indigenous Ogoni activists arrested in Nigeria
Gary S. Trujillo (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us)
Tue, 20 Aug 1996 10:20:33 -0500 (EDT)
There was a report on today's British Broadcasting Corporation's "News
Hour" program providing information about claims that fifteen Ogoni
activists have been arrested by the military government of Nigeria in
advance of a planned visit by representatives of the Commonwealth Heads
of Government (?) at the end of the month for purposes of reviewing
conditions in the country to determine whether the sanctions now in
effect against Nigeria should be lifted. There is a feeling among the
Ogoni people who are aware of the arrests that they have been carried
out in order to prevent a meeting between them and the Commonwealth
representatives, who are eager to determine whether conditions have
changed in Ogoniland following the execution in November of last year
of Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others on trumped-up charges.
(See "http://www.fdl.cc.mn.us/natnet/place/africa.html" for details on
the executions and their relationship to indigenous Ogoni protests to
the environmental destruction of their homeland by operations of the
Shell Oil Company with complicity by the government which has refused
to permit the democratically elected president to assume power and which
continues to hold him in detention and is suspected of a role in the
recent assasination-style killing of his wife, who had been lobbying
for his release.)
Among the fifteen arrested, according to an Ogoni representative inter-
viewed during the report, was a journalist (working for the government-
operated radio station) who is being detained because of his playing an
Ogoni song on the air. A government spokesman denied knowledge of the
arrests and stated in a general sort of way that lawbreakers tend to
hide behind political claims. He said that Commonwealth representatives
were welcome and would be free to see anything they want to in the country.
However, the report talked about how a United Nations delegation was in
the past prevented from meeting with Ogoni representatives and that there
were claims of later reprisals against those who had attempted to mount a
demonstration during that visit.
If anyone has more details about this situation, please post them in a
followup article.
Gary
--
Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {bu.edu,spdcc,cdp}!gnosys!gst